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Topic: Frank J. Russ's Handbook - 1986 (Read 3606 times)

I know this is an oldie, but I thought I'd see if anyone else has this and get their thoughts. This was a vanity press (Vantage) 1986 hardback of 868 pages. The full title is The Crossword-Puzzle and Word-Puzzle Solver's Handbook - A Unique Thesaurus. You can see why I didn't put the title in the subject of the topic. The author, Frank J. Russ, is a clergyman from Missouri. This filled a need of that time that is no longer there since the advent of Oneacross.com and various programs, etc. of being able to look up words based on the positions of the first letter and one other letter. I was given it for Christmas, I think, and I used it a bit before the Internet caught up. The thing I can't understand is why it was published in a variable-width font, something I didn't know when I put on my Christmas list. That cuts its usefulness by about 75%. If you have, for example, a 7-letter word and know the first and 5th letters, you can go through the list of that combo, and that's all well and good, but what if that list is many columns long and you also know the 3rd letter? If it was printed in a fixed width font you could run your finger (or eye) down the words on the third letter and look for that letter, but because of the typeface, the third letters are not in a straight line. It becomes quite a chore. Total lack of forethought. The printers probably suggested the font for readability or attractiveness with no concept of how it would be used. The author intended it be used for crossword solvers, obviously, and should have figured that out. Anyway, it is now a rather quaint topic, but I'm curious if anyone else got caught by this.